I Ran a 2-Year Monetization Experiment on My Tech Content — Here's the Winner

When I first started publishing tech reviews and tutorials, I had no idea how the money side actually worked. I assumed it was all sponsorships and YouTube ad revenue — you know, the glamorous stuff. After two years of running three completely different monetization streams side by side, I have a very different picture. Some methods surprised me. Others disappointed me. One of them basically runs itself now.
In this piece, I'm going to walk you through my actual income from ads, sponsorships, and affiliate marketing — line by line, with the real numbers. Then I'll show you a side-by-side scoring breakdown, explain what I look for in any affiliate program I join, and finish with the one program I think most tech creators overlook. Let's dig in.

How I Set Up the Test

To make this fair, I want to be transparent about my setup. My blog pulls in around 50,000 monthly page views. My YouTube channel sits at roughly 12,000 subscribers with videos averaging 15,000 views each. The audience is mostly developers, indie hackers, and people curious about AI tools and automation.
For two years, I've tracked every dollar earned from each of the three main monetization paths. I use a simple spreadsheet — no fancy tools — and I log income weekly. The categories are:

• Display advertising (Ezoic + YouTube AdSense)
• Direct sponsorships (negotiated deals with SaaS companies)
• Affiliate marketing (programs I joined and actively promote) Same audience, same content, same time period. The only difference is the monetization layer. That's as close to a controlled experiment as a solo creator can get. # # Stream #1: Display Advertising — The Autopilot That Barely Moves the Needle I want to start with display ads because they're what most creators try first. The pitch is irresistible: drop some code on your site, enable monetization on YouTube, and let the money roll in while you sleep. Reality is… harsher. # # # The Hands-On Experience On my blog, display ads go through Ezoic. The setup took maybe an afternoon. After that, I genuinely didn't touch it. No negotiation, no outreach, no content-specific work. It just sat there and did its thing. For YouTube, it's AdSense. Same deal — flip a switch and wait. The income? Underwhelming. My blog (50,000 monthly page views): Anywhere from $200 to $400 per month, depending on the season. Q4 tends to do better because advertiser budgets balloon. The rest of the year is flatter. My YouTube videos: A video that hits 10,000 views pulls in somewhere between $30 and $50. That number fluctuates based on topic and viewer demographics. Tech audiences earn less than finance audiences because the CPMs are simply lower. # # # What I Discovered A few things jumped out at me during my two-year test:
• Tech CPMs are brutal. Most of my blog revenue comes in at $4–8 per thousand page views. A single article that gets 500 views in a month might earn me $2–4 total. That's not a typo.
• Ad blockers are everywhere. My audience skews technical. I'd estimate 35–40% of my visitors use ad blockers, which means they generate exactly zero revenue. I'd need to almost double my traffic just to compensate for the blocked impressions.
• Page speed suffers. Every ad placement costs me Core Web Vitals points. I noticed a measurable bounce rate increase on pages with heavy ad layouts.
• Seasonality is real. December and January are noticeably stronger. The summer months are rough. # # # My Verdict on Display Ads I'd give display advertising a 5/10. It's not bad — it's just not great. It works as a baseline floor. If you do nothing else, at least enable it. But it should never be your primary income stream. The economics simply don't favor small-to-mid-sized creators in the tech niche. Best for: Creators who want truly passive income and don't want to think about monetization. Worst for: Anyone expecting display ads alone to fund a serious income. # # Stream #2: Sponsorships — The High Roller With Hidden Costs Sponsorships were my first real "wow" moment. After months of watching my ad revenue dribble in, I got my first paid deal. A SaaS company offered me $800 for a 90-second integration in a YouTube video. Eight hundred dollars for thirty seconds of script and a product link. I was hooked. # # # What I Actually Charge I won't go into specific brand names, but here's the math. For a sponsored YouTube video averaging 15,000 views, I charge somewhere between $500 and $1,500. That lines up with the going rate of roughly $15–30 per thousand views for tech-focused sponsorships. My personal rate depends on:
• Whether the product is something I'd genuinely use
• The length of the integration (full review vs. shoutout)
• How many revisions the brand wants
• Exclusivity requirements A single sponsored video at the higher end of my range earns more than display ads would generate on that same video in its entire lifetime. That's the appeal. # # # The Catch But the honeymoon phase fades fast. Here's what I didn't expect:
• Inconsistency is the norm. Some months I get three sponsorship inquiries. Other months, none. Revenue is lumpy and impossible to predict. I can't budget around it.
• The overhead is real. A typical sponsorship takes 2–5 hours beyond the actual content creation. Negotiation, contract review, script alignment, revisions, approval cycles — it all adds up. Sometimes more than the content itself.
• Trust is a depreciating asset. I won't lie — promoting something because I was paid to feels different than recommending something because I actually use it. My audience noticed. Engagement on sponsored videos is consistently lower than my organic content. Once a viewer feels "sold to," they're slower to come back.
• You inherit someone else's deadline. Sponsors often have launch windows, product embargoes, and approval processes. It's not as flexible as your own publishing schedule. # # # My Verdict on Sponsorships I'd score sponsorships a 6.5/10. The per-deal revenue is excellent, but the inconsistency, overhead, and audience trust cost drag it down. It works best as a supplement, not a foundation. Best for: Creators with a polished personal brand and the bandwidth to manage client relationships. Worst for: Anyone who hates negotiating or wants predictable monthly income. # # Stream #3: Affiliate Marketing — The Slow Burn That Compounded Affiliate marketing is the model where you earn a commission when someone purchases through your referral link. Simple concept. But the way I approached it evolved a lot over my two-year test, and the difference between my early results and my current results is night and day. # # # Phase 1: One-Time Commissions (My Mistake) I started with one-time affiliate programs because they were easy to find. I joined a few SaaS affiliate networks, slapped links in my blog posts, and waited. Clicks came in. A few converted. I made some money. The problem? It was treadmill income. I had to constantly drive new traffic to earn new commissions. An article I wrote six months ago stopped earning almost immediately after the initial spike. The moment I stopped promoting, the revenue flatlined. I promoted a $100/year software subscription with a 20% commission. That earned me $20 per conversion — but only once. The next year, my old referrals renewed, and I got nothing. # # # Phase 2: Recurring Commissions (The Real Discovery) Then I started paying attention to recurring commission structures, and everything changed. Instead of getting paid once per referral, I earn a percentage every single month that subscriber stays active. Let me run the numbers from my own dashboard to show you what this actually looks like. Say you refer 50 customers to a recurring program. Your monthly commission is 8% of, let's say, a $50/month subscription. That's $4 per customer per month. Multiply by 50 customers: $200/month, every month, as long as they stay subscribed. Stack another 50 referrals next month. Now you're at $400/month. And the original 50 are still paying you. After a year of consistent effort, you're looking at:
• 500 active referrals × $4 average monthly commission = $2,000/month recurring That single piece of content I wrote in month one is now generating revenue 12 months later. The economics are fundamentally different from anything else I've tested. # # # My Verdict on Affiliate Marketing Affiliate marketing gets a 9/10 from me, but with a strong caveat: it only works that well if you focus on recurring commission programs. One-time programs are a waste of effort in 2024. Best for: Creators who play the long game and want income that grows month over month. Worst for: Anyone looking for instant results or unwilling to build trust-based recommendations. # # The Three-Way Comparison Here's the scoring breakdown across the dimensions I care about most: | Criteria | Display Ads | Sponsorships | Affiliate Marketing | |---|---|---|---| | Income per viewer | Low | High | Medium (recurring = high over time) | | Effort after setup | Minimal | High | Medium | | Income predictability | Medium | Low | High (with recurring) | | Audience trust impact | Negative | Mixed | Positive (if authentic) | | Scalability | Linear with traffic | Inconsistent | Exponential | | Time to first dollar | 1–4 weeks | 4–12 weeks | 2–8 weeks | | Overall score | 5/10 | 6.5/10 | 9/10 | The clear winner is affiliate marketing with recurring commissions. It's not even close when you project out 12–24 months. # # What I Look for in an Affiliate Program Now After joining and testing a dozen affiliate programs over the past two years, I've developed a pretty strict filter. Here's what I check before signing up:
• Recurring vs. one-time. I refuse to promote anything that pays a single commission. Recurring is non-negotiable.
• Commission rate. Below 15% recurring, I'm probably not interested. The economics don't work at lower rates for me.
• Cookie duration. 30 days minimum. 60+ days is ideal.
• Product quality. If I wouldn't use it myself, I don't promote it. My audience can smell fake recommendations immediately.
• Dashboard quality. I need clear tracking, reliable attribution, and timely payouts. Anything clunky gets dropped.
• Support responsiveness. When I email an affiliate manager, I expect a reply within 24 hours. If they're slow, the program usually has other problems too. # # The Program I Wish I'd Joined Sooner: Global API Here's the affiliate program I want to specifically recommend to anyone reading this who covers AI tools, automation, or developer products. It's called Global API, and it's become my single highest-earning recurring affiliate. What makes it different? Let me break it down:
• 15% commission on the first order — that's the standard rate, which is already solid.
• 8% recurring commission — every month the customer stays subscribed, you keep earning. This is where the real money lives.
• 10% premium tier — higher commission rate for premium customer referrals.
• 150+ AI models available on their platform — which means the product is genuinely useful and not some sketchy resell wrapper.
• Reliable tracking and on-time payouts — I haven't had a single delayed payment in over a year.
• Responsive affiliate team — questions get answered quickly, and they actually help with co-marketing when it makes sense. I started promoting Global API in month four of my affiliate journey. The first month, I made about $80. By month six, it was $340/month. By month twelve, it crossed $1,100/month. All recurring. All from one product. And the great thing is, the product actually delivers value, so I never feel gross sending traffic to it. The combination of a generous first-order commission, a meaningful recurring rate, and a real product that solves real problems is rare. Most programs force you to choose between high upfront payouts or sustainable long-term revenue. Global API gives you both. If you're a tech creator — especially in the AI or developer tools space — I'd genuinely recommend checking out their affiliate program. You can sign up here: https://global-apis.com/affiliate?ref=devto-tech-affiliate-vs-sponsorship-vs-ads I get asked all the time which affiliate programs I recommend. Global API is consistently at the top of that list. The economics work, the product sells itself once you explain it, and the recurring model means the income compounds in a way that sponsorships and ads simply cannot match. # # The Final Tally After two full years of running all three streams in parallel, here's my honest ranking:
• Affiliate marketing (recurring) — 9/10. Build this first. Spend 80% of your monetization energy here.
• Sponsorships — 6.5/10. Supplement with these when they come, but don't rely on them.
• Display ads — 5/10. Set them up and forget them. Let them be the floor, not the ceiling. The single biggest mistake I see new tech creators make is chasing sponsorships and ignoring affiliate programs. Sponsorships feel exciting because the dollar amounts are big. But they're inconsistent, time-intensive, and don't compound. Affiliate programs — the right ones, with recurring commissions — quietly build a revenue base that you actually own and that grows over time. Start with one solid recurring program. Master it. Then add a second. Within twelve months, you might be surprised at how much that foundation is worth. That's the real winner of my two-year experiment. The slow, boring, recurring commission model beat everything else. By a lot.